_____________________________________________________The Trumputkins, the Trumpumpkins, and "The Tillerson Ultimatum"

M.N.: And zis iz what my sweet little Ellochka whispered into my ear:
Zee "Airmail Special Report on Tillerson's visit to Moscow on 4.11.17 - by Ella Fitzgerald...", az aboveIt looks like this most fabulous transnational geo - finance - cum "Global Laundromat" as a dowry from the mutual German friends, the political Trumputkins's marriage, served by its various Trumpumpkins, passed through its (custom made in Heavens and designed the Hell only knows by whom, how, and where) the most tumultuous and passionate honeymoon, and ha-hangs there somewhere in the air now, possibly with some strings, visible, invisible, and not visible yet, hanging still, and maybe even still and very much attached and functioning... functioning... Someone and Hell knows. FBI, in its broadcasting regarding the possibility of the "Trump Investigation" going on for years and while he is in the office for the full term, at least... (unless zis iz not zomething that iz zuitable for them, and prezumably, for the country), demonstrated its own whirling and embracing, controlling strings around the President. They are just like some good old fashioned country detective: he is not to investigate the crime only, but to control and to prevent it, mostly; since the investigation in and by itself is not sufficient, and also is quite difficult to perform accurately (like probably so many of the major counterintelligence investigations, where all the possible leads are thought about in advance carefully, and are very skillfully concealed). They also want the object of their attention to know about their continuing interest: maybe the object will behave better, or at least, less conspicuously. It is logical to entertain a question: Is the mentality of a country detective re-ah-ah-illy applicable in this particular situation and the circumstances? So, the Trump - Putin mysterious marriage is on the rocks... With regard to Syria and the "Tillerson's Ultimatum": either we, the good guys, or him - that lowly, despicable gas-murderer, Assad... Putin does not like the "ultimatums" particularly (Who does?), hopefully, he will just disregard this term as a catchy journalistic invention or exaggeration. But in fact, it is an ultimatum. And a good one, I must say: simple, clear, understandable to all, reasonable, and executable by both parties, one way or another. A good example of the productive diplomatic dualism as a thinking and as an action.

С руководителем Федеральной налоговой службы Михаилом Мишустиным.Everything is relative, fluid, and uncertain, except death and taxes... If he wants to stay alive and continue to live comfortably, let B. Assad pay his share of taxes of what he "earned"; his actions, inactions, or inability for both is his own responsibility, the long-suffering Syrian people do not have to pay for this. Nuff's nuff,, and all that stuff. Let him go, Vovchick! Give him some nice dacha somewhere in Peredelkino, until it is too late, and let him write his memoirs... The unresolved issues, whatever, whoever, and however triggers the attention to them and their discussions, have to be resolved: soundly, timely, fundamentally, and the long-term; otherwise they come back and accumulate, and together with the other unresolved issues, snowball and cause the avalanches. Nobody needs this mess, enough snow jobs everywhere... That's what Mishustin thinks...

Smoke rises up from a part of the airfield where planes are parked at Vnukovo International Airport in Moscow, Russia, April 11, 2017. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov M.N.: If there is a smoke, there must be a fire... Fire the old crooked firesetter pretending to be a firefighter, B. Assad, and bring in the real, good, honest firefighters to contain the fire and finally to put it out. Michael Novakhov 4.11.17

Mr. Tillerson, in comments just before he headed to Moscow for a high-stakes summit meeting, said that Russia risked becoming irrelevant in the Middle East.

“Russia can be a part of that future and play an important role,” Mr. Tillerson said at a Group of 7 meeting in Lucca, Italy. “Or Russia can maintain its alliance with this group, which we believe is not going to serve Russia’s interests longer term.”

Then, in a preview of his coming meetings in Moscow, he added, “Only Russia can answer that question.”

In his comments, Mr. Tillerson also sought to end the confusing mix of signals from the Trump administration over whether the United States conducted its attack for humanitarian or national security reasons, and whether the Trump administration is seeking an immediate change in government in Syria.

“We do not want the regime’s uncontrolled stockpile of chemical weapons to fall into the hands of ISIS or other terrorist groups who could and want to attack the United States or our allies,” Mr. Tillerson said at a brief news conference in Lucca, referring to the Islamic State. “Nor can we accept the normalization of the use of chemical weapons by other actors or countries, in Syria or elsewhere.”

Shortly after speaking, Mr. Tillerson got up from a round wooden table in the Palazzo Ducale, where he was attending a meeting of foreign ministers of G-7 countries, and left for the airport.

Mr. Tillerson said that the United States’ priority in Syria and Iraq “remains the defeat of ISIS,” and that Mr. Assad does not have a place in Syria’s future.

“I think it is clear to all of us that the reign of the Assad family is coming to an end,” Mr. Tillerson said. “But the question of how that ends, and the transition itself, could be very important in our view to the durability, the stability inside of a unified Syria.”

He added, “So that’s why we are not presupposing how that occurs.”

Mr. Assad’s continued use of chemical weapons, however, ended his legitimacy, Mr. Tillerson said.

Despite the blunt criticism from Mr. Tillerson, the Italian foreign minister, Angelino Alfano, said there was “no consensus” on whether to toughen sanctions on Russia, as sought by his British counterpart, Boris Johnson.

Mr. Alfano said that any effort to isolate Russia “would be wrong,” adding that the G-7 would continue to support the existing sanctions against Russia, imposed for its actions in eastern Ukraine.

Britain and America have failed to win immediate support from European allies for new sanctions on Russia following the chemical weapons attack in Syria.

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson spearheaded the drive at the G7 for punitive measures against Moscow, but could not win the full-throated backing he wanted from Germany, Italy or the wider European Union.

Allies from the EU and Canada had also underlined the need for due process before moving on with any new programme of sanctions, the G7 did agree that no solution to the crisis in Syria was possible while Bashar al-Assad remained in power.

Mr Johnson said: “What we are doing now is tabling a resolution in the UN security council. There is going to be a chemical weapons inspection group investigation into exactly what happened.

“And after that – of course, if we can find people whether they are Syrians or whether they are Russians who are associated with the Syrian military operation, it is in my view wholly appropriate that they should face economic sanction or sanctions of some other kind.”

Speaking to Sky News he added: “And that is something by the way that had a wide degree of acceptance around the table last night, but you’ve got to do these things in the proper legal way.”

Russia and Iran have threatened the US over Syria

Officials tried to play down the failure to win more support for sanctions, saying gaining backing from the Germans and Italians was always likely to prove difficult.

A British Government source told The Independent that the UK had gone into the G7 wanting unanimity on Assad needing to go and had won that, adding: "Yes, we need more evidence to impose sanctions. But we are confident.”

The group of nations did give full support for the US missile strike on the Syrian airbase from which the chemical attack is believed to have originated, and were united in their condemnation of Assad.

France's Jean-Marc Ayrault said G7 foreign ministers, including Germany's Sigmar Gabriel, have insisted there can be no peace solution in Syria with Assad in power, while US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said it is clear "to all of us that the reign of the Assad family is coming to an end".

Mr Tillerson said: “The US is grateful for the statements of all our partners for their support for out timely and proportionate response.

"As events shift, the United States will continue to evaluate strategic options and opportunities to de-escalate violence across Syria.”

He also criticised Russia for having “failed in its responsibility” made under UN agreements to ensure that Syria would destroy all chemical weapons.

Mr Tillerson is travelling to Moscow imminently and had hoped to take with him a definite statement of intent from the G7 nations and other partners, including Middle Eastern allies who are at the Lucca meeting.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is meeting his Russian counterpart following the G7 (Reuters)

There was outrage across the world after dozens of civilians were killed in what is believed by the West to have been a chemical weapons attack by the Assad regime.

Anticipating tough language from the G7 in Italy, Russia and Iran issued on Monday a joint call for an “unbiased investigation” into the gassing at the Syrian village.

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif agreed to demand the probe, while denouncing the US attack on the Syrian airbase as “an act of aggression against a sovereign nation”.

Again in January, Russia moved troops near the border with Belarus, designed to pressure Belarus to accept an increased Russian military presence on its territory. And in March, the Kremlin ordered the incorporation of the armed forces in South Ossetia, one of two breakaway territories in Georgia, into the Russian military.

Meanwhile, last month Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, the top American general in Europe, told Congress that Russia and the Afghan Taliban are growing increasingly close, suggesting that the Kremlin is supplying the insurgent group with weapons. Matériel support would be a significant escalation of Russia’s involvement with the Taliban, and it would undercut American efforts to stabilize Afghanistan. It would also put the 9,000 American and 5,000 NATO troops there at increased risk.

Two weeks ago, the commander of American forces in Africa, Gen. Thomas Waldhauser, observed that Russia’s role in Libya is deepening, with its special forces on the ground in Egypt just over the border with Libya. He noted Russian support for the powerful Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar, who is resisting the United Nations-recognized government in Tripoli.

And of course, last week Russia denied that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad used sarin gas against his own people. This is the latest in Russia’s broad and deep diplomatic and military support for the Syrian dictator, who has killed some 200,000 of his people and displaced half his population.

All of these steps have a common thread. Mr. Putin, who wants political control over neighboring countries and to be seen as a great global power, is testing President Trump. He wants to see how far he can go until we say “enough.” While Mr. Putin must realize the Trump administration is unlikely to be able to roll back Western sanctions on Russia, as Mr. Putin originally hoped, he may think Mr. Trump’s still unexplained infatuation with him will allow him to move aggressively, without American resistance.

What has the Trump administration done to respond to all of the above? There have been strong words from Vice President Mike Pence and Defense Secretary James Mattis, and particularly from the American ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley. But so far there has been no condemnation from Mr. Trump and, most important, no action.

The administration needs to set out a clear policy toward Russia. It must communicate clearly what is unacceptable and strengthen its deterrence, and in that way establish its negotiating position, so that it can effectively and realistically explore areas for cooperation.

The signaling needs to start with the president. He must deliver a speech asserting American interest in trans-Atlantic security and speak resolutely on the right of states to choose democracy, a free-market economy and membership in NATO or the European Union.

America’s Russia policy must include continued funding for troop presence and exercises on NATO territory, and training and equipment for non-NATO partners at risk from Moscow. At the same time, it should restart discussions with Russia on nuclear, conventional and now cyber-arms control to lower the temperature in areas of potential danger.

The president must also condemn Russia’s continued support for Mr. Assad and the deliberate Russian bombing of civilians in Syria, and press for Russia to support a transition in Syria. Bombing an airfield isn’t enough.

And of course, the administration must denounce Russia’s interference in American elections and make clear that such behavior will not be tolerated again.

Whether the president likes it or not, Mr. Putin’s Russia views the United States as its adversary, and it is working to undermine America around the world. Mr. Putin has accomplished a great deal in only a few weeks. President Trump needs to say “enough.” He can start by having his secretary of state deliver that message when he visits Moscow this week.

Chechyna has reportedly opened its first prison camp where men are 'tortured or killed' because of their sexuality

GAY men are allegedly being put into concentration camp-style prisons in Russia, it has been claimed.

Authorities have been accused of setting up several “secret” camps in Chechnya where men have been tortured or killed because of their sexuality, Novoya Gazeta reported.

The Russian newspaper based their report on interviews with eyewitnesses and survivors who claim they were arrested and detained at one of the secret prison at a former military headquarters in the town of Argun.

Former detainees told how they endured “electric shock torture and violent interrogation”, while others say they were held to ransom and used to extort their families.

One prisoner who fled claimed he was blackmailed by Chechen police every month in order to survive before he was incarcerated.

It comes after Novoya Gazeta reported Chechen police had rounded up more than 100 men suspected of being gay – killing three of them, last week.

Chechen’s President Ramzan Kadyrov, who is a key ally of Vladimir Putin, accused of ordering the clampdown, denied the allegations claiming “it’s impossible to persecute those who are not in the republic”.

The Chechen government suggested there are no gay people in their country.

The Kremlin-backed Kadyrov is widely accused of extensive human rights violations. He has brought Islam to the fore of Chechnya’s daily life, including opening what is called Europe’s biggest mosque.

thin RED LINE

Russia and Iran pledge to hit back against further Syria strikes as they blast US for 'crossing red lines'

thin RED LINE

Russia and Iran pledge to hit back against further Syria strikes as they blast US for 'crossing red lines'

VAPE WARNING

New vaping laws to come into force restricting sale of e-liquids and e-cigarettes

tanks a bullion!

Military buff shocked to find £2million of gold bullion hidden in tank he'd just bought on eBay for £30,000

bet they'll have hangovers

Grand National girls go wild as the booze flows on Ladies Day at Aintree... but it's early to bed for some

RIPPED FROM HIS SEAT

Shocking moment cops drag elderly ‘doctor’ off an overbooked plane because he refused to get off when randomly selected to give up his seat

NOAH WAY JOSE

'Psychic' claims the Bible has 'hidden code' that predicts Spain will be DESTROYED by a killer tsunami

DON TEST HIM

North Korea could nuke US ANY DAY, Russia warns - as top politician slams Donald Trump for provoking state

NOT SO SMART PRICE

Asda shopper forced to self-scan more than 60 items after £130 big shop

COLD CALL CON

Brits targeted in scam epidemic as experts warn to hang up IMMEDIATELY if you are asked these questions

UNLUCKY PUNTER

Mum's fury after bookies refuse to pay out on £10,000 winner because 'too many people' use her betting account

BARK AND CHIDE

Human rights groups have accused security forces controlled by Kadyrov of resorting to disappearances, torture, and extrajudicial executions, and the collective punishment of suspects’ extended families in their fight with Islamist insurgents.

Tanya Lokshina of Human Rights Watch said: “For several weeks now, a brutal campaign against LGBT people has been sweeping through Chechnya.

“Law enforcement and security agency officials under control of the ruthless head of the Chechen Republic, Ramzan Kadyrov, have rounded up dozens of men on suspicion of being gay, torturing and humiliating the victims.

“Some of the men have forcibly disappeared. Others were returned to their families barely alive from beatings. At least three men apparently have died since this brutal campaign began.”

In a statement, the Russian LGBT community said: “No national and/or religious traditions and norms can justify kidnapping or killing of a human being.

“Any references to ‘traditions’ to justify kidnappings and killings are amoral and criminal.

It added: “We believe that the only thing that can work out is the evacuation. We co-operate closely we the human rights defenders both in Russia and abroad, and ready to evacuate.”

A helicopter view shows students leaving North Park Elementary School in San Bernardino, Calif. on April 10. (Reuters)

A helicopter view shows students leaving North Park Elementary School in San Bernardino, Calif. on April 10.Aerial view shows students streaming out of San Bernardino elementary school (Reuters)

Police said two adults, a man and a woman, were killed and two children were wounded in a suspected murder-suicide Monday at an elementary school in Southern California.

San Bernardino police Capt. Ron Maass said during a news conference Monday that the woman, who was a teacher at North Park Elementary School, was killed inside a classroom. The man then died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Maass said.

The students were listed in critical condition, he said.

Maass said investigators do not believe the children were targets.

“The suspect had come to the classroom to visit the adult female,” Maass told reporters. “We believe the two children were unfortunate recipients of injuries.”

Initially, San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan said in a series of tweets Monday morning local time that officers were responding to the school following a shooting inside a classroom that he said was most likely a “murder-suicide.”

“We believe the suspect is down and there’s no further threat,” he wrote.

The police chief said four victims — one who was reported to be a teacher — were being treated. He said two students had been transported to a nearby hospital. Other students were taken to Cajon High School for their safety and were being released to their parents, police said.

By about 11:40 a.m. local time, Eric Sherwin, a spokesman for the San Bernardino County Fire Department, said the situation had “stabilized.” He added that officials were preparing a news conference later in the afternoon.

Authorities said during Monday’s news conference that there was no indication that the gun was visible when the suspect entered the classroom.

The two children, who were near the teacher, were wounded in the shooting, police said, but they were not related to the suspect or the victim.

City and county officials said that the San Bernardino Police Department is leading the investigation, with on-the-scene support from the San Bernardino County Fire Department.

Dale Marsden, superintendent of San Bernardino City Unified School District, said, “Our hearts are broken, as are everyone else’s.”

“This is a tragic event,” he said during the news conference. “It’s going to take time for our heads, our hearts to heal … when you’re going through this type of horrible event, we need each other to walk hand in hand to heal, to continue to press forward, to not allow what is tragic to halt our lives.”

The shooting comes 16 months after a terrorist attack left 14 people dead and 22 others wounded, when Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik, a married couple, entered a venue hosting a Christmas party for county public health workers and opened fire. The two were killed hours later in a shootout with San Bernardino police.

“Today, yet another elementary school community was shaken by gun violence,” Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, said in a statement. “Our thoughts are with the students, faculty and families affected by the shooting. Educators should not have to fear being shot at work. Parents should not have to fear their children not returning home from school.”

There have been more than 200 school shootings in less than five years, and lockdown drills have become part of standard safety practice. There are solutions out there — too often we rely on thoughts and prayers to do the work our politicians refuse to do. Our volunteers and gun violence survivors will not rest until our leaders put our children’s safety first and we change the culture of gun violence in this country.”

There have been 220 school shootings in the United States since 2013, according to Everytown for Gun Safety, a group that tracks gun violence in the United States. The group reported that, on an average day in the United States, seven children and teenagers ages 19 or under are killed with guns.

There were 48 school shootings in the United States in 2016, an average of just under one incident a week, according to statistics compiled by Everytown for Gun Safety. The shooting in San Bernardino is the 12th in 2017.

North Park Elementary enrolls about 530 children, the majority of whom are Latino, and three-quarters of whom are poor, according to data from the San Bernardino City Unified School District.

Yet the Clinton administration praised Yeltsin for promoting democratic and market reforms. Clinton had a soft spot for “Ol’ Boris,” whom he considered a bulwark against Russia’s Communist Party, which was growing in popularity as Russians’ misery increased.

Though Conradi’s coverage of the 1990s doesn’t turn up anything new, it does something valuable. It shows that the authoritarianism, corruption and crony capitalism of Putin’s Russia took root during that decade. More important, given Conradi’s objective, it demonstrates that the disputes currently dividing Russia and the West preceded Vladimir Putin’s presidency.

Consider Putin’s broadsides against NATO’s eastward expansion. Conradi reminds us that Yeltsin, not to mention Russia’s military brass, also vociferously opposed NATO’s enlargement. Even Russian liberals, like Boris Nemtsov (later a fierce opponent of Putin who was shot dead on a Moscow bridge in February 2015), predicted a backlash. Clinton airily dismissed such prognoses as “silly.”

In the 1990s, Russia, weak and reliant on Western aid, acquiesced unhappily to NATO’s advance toward its borders. As Yeltsin once said wearily, having again failed to change Clinton’s mind on that policy, “Well, I tried.”

Likewise, while Western leaders have condemned Putin’s quest for spheres of influence, Conradi shows that in Yeltsin’s time too Russians believed that they were entitled to preponderance in the countries of the former Soviet Union, particularly Ukraine. For Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Ukraine and Russia were organically connected. Vladimir Lukin, Yeltsin’s ambassador to Washington, advised Strobe Talbott — Clinton’s top Russia expert and later deputy secretary of state — to consider Russia and Ukraine as akin to New York and New Jersey. Yeltsin’s first foreign minister, the liberal reformer Andrei Kozyrev, asked why Russia should retreat from territories that took centuries to conquer.

Putin’s Russia and the West are now at loggerheads — even, according to a popular but misguided analogy Conradi uses, enmeshed in a new Cold War. But things didn’t start out that way. Putin’s early meetings with President George W. Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and NATO Secretary General George Robertson were convivial. He presented Russia as part of the West and even startled his interlocutors by proposing that Russia join NATO. He called the White House immediately after the 9/11 attacks, offering assistance, and actually provided it during Washington’s war against Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. Though he didn’t like George W. Bush’s renunciation of the 1972 Antiballistic Missile Treaty, his invasion of Iraq and NATO’s incorporation of the three Baltic States — Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania — he took these matters in stride.

When did things go awry and why? Conradi suggests that the democratic revolutions in Georgia in 2003-4 and Ukraine in 2004-5 may have been a turning point. Western governments applauded the protesters, and American and European NGOs had long financed and trained Georgian and Ukrainian pro-democracy groups. For Putin, the democratic movements represented a Western effort to undercut Russia in its own neighborhood; democracy and human rights were ruses, demanded of some countries but not others.

In 2007, at the annual Munich Security Conference, Putin lambasted the United States for foisting its values on others, sowing instability and behaving arrogantly. He has stuck to this script. And it has had enormous appeal within Russia. For lots of Russians, Putin personifies a break with the 1990s, when their country, led by a boozy, erratic president, was politically chaotic, economically near collapse and dissed by the West.

Only 47 when he was elected president in 2000, Putin exuded vitality — a stark contrast, as Conradi shows, to Yeltsin’s decrepitude. Taking advantage of soaring oil prices, which quintupled between 2000 and 2008, Putin bulked up Russia’s army, acquiring the muscle to push back: in Georgia in 2008 (Conradi provides an illuminating account of the events that culminated in the Georgian army’s humiliating defeat) and in Ukraine in 2014 (here Conradi doesn’t add anything original).

If any one event explains the rupture between Russia and the West, it was, as Conradi vividly shows, the mass rebellion that erupted in Ukraine in late 2013 when President Viktor Yanukovych, popularly elected albeit venal, cut off negotiations with the European Union on an association agreement and tacked instead toward Russia. Western governments immediately embraced the uprising against him. Senator John McCain and Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland visited Kiev and communed with the protesters.

On Feb. 21, the E.U. brokered a deal between Yanukovych and opposition leaders that included an early presidential election. But when the protesting masses cried betrayal, Yanukovych was finished. He fled the next day. To Putin, his ouster was another Western conspiracy. Russian officials seized on a telephone conversation in Kiev between Nuland and Geoffrey Pyatt, the American ambassador, about the post-Yanukovych government’s composition, an amateurish exchange that was intercepted by Russian intelligence and inevitably reached YouTube. Putin upped the ante in March, annexing Crimea, with its Russian majority, and backing separatists in eastern Ukraine with weapons and troops. The West slapped Russia with economic sanctions and banished it from the G-8. President Obama’s ailing “reset” policy lay dead.

So who lost Russia? Russia’s leaders, primarily Putin, who neither built democracy nor made Russia a partner of the West? Or the West, which was never serious about respecting Russia’s interests, let alone a partnership? Conradi doesn’t provide a clear-cut answer to his question. Given the complexities he grapples with, who can blame him?

US-Russia Relations Post Military Strikes in SyriaBloombergIan Bremmer, president and founder of Eurasia Group, discusses market reaction and U.S.-Russia relations after military strikes in Syria. He speaks with Bloomberg's David Westin on "Bloomberg Daybreak: Americas." (Source: Bloomberg) ...

The Early Edition: April 10, 2017Just SecurityDrop support for Assad or face further corrosion of US-Russia relations, Trump officials demanded of Russia yesterday, national security adviser H.R. McMaster saying that Russia should be pressed to disclose what it new ahead of last week's chemical ...and more »

The Note: The split on Syria strategyABC NewsTHE BIG STORY: Can he stay or should he go? The split between top Trump administration officials on the question of whether regime change is the policy of the United States in Syria is just one of the internal Trump administration disagreements ...and more »

Iran calls on Syria to ensure Trump 'regrets his attack'Daily MailIran has called on Syria to 'make Americans regret their attack' after Russia warned Donald Trump there will be a military response if the US strikes at Assad again. President Hassan Rouhani accused the US of not acting 'within international frameworks ...and more »

Iran's Strategy to Sabotage World TradetheTrumpet.comThis was at a time when most commentators were focusing on the Houthi rebellion as an attempt to take over land and destabilize Iran's rival, Saudi Arabia, which is Yemen's northern neighbor. But Mr. Flurry foresaw that Iran's interest in the Houthi ...

G-7 ministers aim to press Russia to stop backing AssadChicago TribuneU.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson steps off his plane at Pisa Military Airport in Pisa, Italy, on Sunday, April 9, 2017. Tillerson is in Italy to attend a meeting of foreign ministers from the Group of 7 industrialized economies. (Josh Lederman ...and more »

Trump still can't buy a vote of confidenceWashington PostPresident Trump's strikes against the Syrian government earned the support of the American people and improved views of Trump (albeit only slightly), according to a new poll. But the biggest takeaway might be the big, red stop sign that came with all that.and more »

Scores of cyber attacks tied to CIA tools, Symantec saysCNETThe hacking tools used by the Central Intelligence Agency may have been involved with at least 40 cyber attacks in 16 countries, security firm Symantec told Reuters. The company based its conclusion on the disclosure of those tools by WikiLeaks last month.

4 key truths about President TrumpWashington PostDonald Trump has been president for 80 days, and he's now taken part in perhaps the most solemn presidential duty there is: authorizing military action. He's also waged his first big legislative fight, gotten a Supreme Court justice confirmed and ...and more »